Alyss Heart Character Analysis

In how many ways can a person change in the course of one novel? They can change a great deal. Alyss changed from rebellious and mischievous to beautiful and well-educated to. People change in many ways, some you can expect and some you just don’t understand.

When Alyss was a young girl in the novel she was characterized as maturing, rebellious, and mischievous because of the things she liked to do. She was described as maturing because of something that happened to her when she came to this dimension. By being in the real world she matured by learning the “...struggle against hardship, unfairness, corruption, abuse, and adversity in all it’s guise.”(Beddor 102) By living as a homeless orphan with a small group of kids. Along with learning that she would soon learn that “...even to survive-let alone survive with dignity-is heroic.”(Beddor 102) She will learn this by giving into peer pressure because people were

thinking she was crazy. This little princess was portrayed as being majorly rebellious because when she gets in trouble she doesn’t respect authority. When Alyss was adopted and started going to classes with her siblings, she wrote her name Alyss but everyone else believed it to be Alice. The problem with this was when her teacher told her to write A-L-I-C-E 100 times on the board and Alyss did this, “She’d written A-L-I-C-E ninety-nine times. Miss Prickett wasn’t looking. She spelled A-L-Y-S-S on the black-board and started toward her seat.” (Beddor 127) The future queen of Wonderland was known for being mischievous. “She would rather have hidden with her friend, Dodge, in one of the palace towers, dropping jolly jellies from an open window and watching them splat on the guards below.” (Beddor 11) It is hard for a seven year-old to not try to get in trouble, so it makes sense. But this implies that when Alyss gets bored, she finds a way to have fun, usually doing things she is not supposed to. The fact she likes to be mischievous makes it harder for her to pay attention in her lessons.

Alyss changed in Part 2 from the rebellious, maturing little girl, Alyss Heart, to the beautiful, well-educated woman, Alice Liddel.

Alyss Heart was changed after Dodgson showed her the book he wrote about her. She gave up on being Alyss Heart. She thought to herself, “...No more. Erase it all. I will no longer be Odd Alice. Odd Alice must die. Yes it was a solution: Give up on her so-called ridiculous, fantastical delusions and enter whole heartedly into the world around him.” (Beddor 149-150) , now she was Alice Liddel. Everyone was surprised at her transformation. “...so well well had she adapted to the customs and beliefs of the time, so well had she adopted the inclinations of other her age, that she’d befriended those who use to tease her mercilessly.” Alice was showing that she could be the prim, proper, and beautiful woman that her adoptive parents wanted her to be. Alice had many suitors, one being a prince, Prince Leopold. He thought that “... her beauty was undeniable.” that’s one of the reasons why he asked for her hand in

marriage.